User blog:RelativelySaneCultist/The Bo-bobo Anime and US Home Distribution: A Star-Crossed Tragedy
Now, if you read my last blog, you'll know of the abismal ammount of effort that was put into localizing/distributing the Bo-bobo manga in America. While the manga's failure was due in part of Viz Media not feeling like it was worth trying to begin with, the Anime is a much different story... The english dub of the Bo-bobo anime began airing on Cartoon Network's Toonami block in 2007. Despite the fact quite a few gags were either changed or entirely cut due to children's TV regulations, the english dub (by Phuuz Entertainment) still did an excellent job at capturing the insane wacky humor of the original Japanese version. While it was still relatively unpopular in comparison to other anime airing on the Toonami block at the time, it gained a pretty big cult following. Then, in 2007, Illumitoon Entertainment began a DVD home release of the anime, starting with the first four episodes. A few months later, they released the next 4 episodes and began planning for the third release when... DISASTER STRIKES! A deal falls out between Illumitoon and a company called Westlake Entertainment, and Illumitoon, mortally wounded and unable to find any sort of financial stability, bleeds out all over the pavement... The Bo-bobo license was left cold and alone, whithout a home of it's own... Then, bathed in a holy light, hope emerges for the doomed license in the form of S'more Entertainment! In 2012, they released a 4 DVD box set containing the complete first season of the anime, then later another 4 DVD box set containing the complete second season, finally giving the series the US home release it deserved. (well, if you ignore the fact that they advertised the first box set with having subtitles to accompany the original Japanese language version but it turns out there weren't any and that it was appearantly an "error on their part") So thankfully, today anyone can experience the bizarrness of watching an extremely nonsensical anime man with a solid gold afro whip bad guys into shape with his nose hairs in the comfort of their own home. A happy ending, no? NOT EVEN CLOSE. You see, this is why I call this a "Star-crossed Tragedy", because this story is no happy ending. If you go on Amazon and try to find these box sets, you'll only find the fact that they've been sold out. I remember checking up on these listings last year, and their status has never seemed to change. I began to wonder if they'd ever be back in stock... Well, about 3 weeks ago, I decided to email S'more Entertainment and last week I got my answer. According to S'more Entertainment, the series was deleted in 2015 and they no longer have the rights to it. So... yeah. Seems like that's the end of the Bo-bobo anime's hope for US home distribution... Atleast for now. Maybe some other company will scoop up the rights, or maybe one already did. Either way, I doubt we'll be seeing another release anytime soon. Category:Blog posts